Rather than post “Monster Mash” or “Werewolves of London,” which everyone will post, I’m picking some of my favorite, lesser known holiday tunes, and listing my 20 favorite scary movies. Every movies gets either a picture or a song. Nobody gets apples or pennies.
Drop a comment and tell me what I left off the list!
1. Night of the Living Dead (The original. Saw it for the first time in Maine when I was 6. Scared me for two weeks.)
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (The original.)
Saw saw saw saw. Ouch.-Drunk Country. I loves me the DC. Such great music. Why haven’t they been signed yet? Wake up music people! What the fuck is wrong with you? You all zombies?
3. Halloween. (The original.)
Every Day Is Halloween-The Postmarks (Ministry cover)
4. Nightmare on Elm Street.
5. The Exorcist
6. Dawn of the Dead (the original). I know it’s not scary, but it’s a fantastic film on so many levels. Not the least of which is this great tribute, in song . . .
Re: Your Brains-Jonathan Coulton
7. The Hitcher.
Ridin’-50 Cent. (From his classic “For Love or War” bootleg.)
8. Evil Dead 2
Candyland-Soul Position. Because what’s Halloween without candy?
9. An American Werewolf in London. Because horror films are all about sexual guilt, on some level, and when dead people talk to you during a stroke film, you know you’ve got issues.
10. Freaks. Todd Browning’s classic exploitation film.
11. 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. (A two-parter.)
12. Alien
Monsters I’ve Met-Shel Silverstein
13. The Fly (David Cronenberg version). The perfect parable for why love is scary.
14. Hellraiser. Sure, everyone remembers pinhead. But what about skinned Frank?
Highway to Hell-Red Star Brigade
15. Triple feature: Return of the Living Dead; Young Frankenstein; Scream. Because sometimes horror is funny.
16. Saw. Yes, it’s torture porn. But it was scary as hell.
17. Dracula (The original.)
18. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 version).
19. Poltergeist.
20. Frankenstein (The original.)
Honorable Mentions: Jaws (more of an action film than a horror film, but undeniable scary); Dawn of the Dead (the recent remake); Psycho; Near Dark; Nosferatu (1936).
